Oscar Wilde once said, “The greatest men fail, or seem to have failed.” Paolo Sorrentino‘s film The Great Beauty shows us such a man. In a film so extravagantly shot, the profound sadness buried beneath the haughty exterior of 65-year-old protagonist Jep Gambardella can easily be overlooked. However, the film itself cannot be and its onslaught of dazzling images, running the gamut from nuns to giraffes to dwarves, begs to be seen in a theatre.

Teaming up one of America’s greatest living comedians with one of America’s greatest living wordsmiths may sound like a good idea on paper but, as seen in Tim Story’s Ride Along, sometimes things get lost in the transition from page to screen. The film does not carry the emotional weight of a Cube classic like Friday or the laugh-a-second hilarity of Hart’s stand-up specials but does feature performances good enough to hide most of the film’s flaws.

For the past few months, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore had been highly recommended to me by a fellow film buff. “Ah, you’re interested in feminist movies?” the film buff would ask me. And like any sleep deprived college student who says very unfunny things because they’re tired, I settled into a low, manic chuckle before I answered, “Uh, have you read my blog?” (Just kidding, I didn’t say that. I replied with the tasteful, yet simple “Yup.”)

Winning Best Actor at Cannes and now nominated for several Oscars, Alexander Payne’s offbeat road movie penetrates the oft-neglected landscape of Middle America. But despite its humble narrative, Nebraska’s stunning performances pitched against exquisite black-and-white cinematography wax a subtle melancholia and quiet reverence for an old man who thinks he won a million dollars.

David. O Russell has a very unique style that he injects into American Hustle. The constantly moving camera and performances that seem to come naturally to the actors, especially Bradley Cooper, made it feel like I was actually watching these events happen before my eyes. American Hustle is real and hilarious.

After successfully adapting Shakespeare in his 2011 film Coriolanus, Ralph Fiennes has triumphed once again with his masterful sophomore film The Invisible Woman. Fiennes’ respect for the complexity of Charles Dickens’ life and work is evident in his direction, his performance, and, especially, his casting of Felicity Jones as Nelly Ternan. Her portrayal of a woman in an utterly heartbreaking predicament shows us what it means to yearn for love in a time of restraint.

Imagine that two secret agents coincidentally fall in love with the same, down-home blonde-haired Reese Witherspoon… Just imagine that. Now let’s imagine that these two secret agents are actually James T. Kirk and Bane in a series of one-upping Bash Brothers mayhem. Witherspoon meets Tom Hardy on an online date, while Chris Pine heaps a massive dose of Casanova fail on her, though she is slowly charmed by his loveable narcissism. Oh, and Chelsea Handler is the best friend, obliging her duties by giving exposition to the NSA-style setup the agents arranged in order to learn everything about the girl.

In what was arguably the best year for documentaries in a decade, the one that ended up being my favorite release was also one of the least mentioned. Josh and Benny Safdie’sLenny Cooke started out as a decision by filmmaker Adam Shopkorn to follow Lenny Cooke instead of LeBron James before the NBA draft. This decision may seem foolish in retrospect, but it did provide the groundwork for the most compelling documentary of 2013.

Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game (1939)or La Règle du jeu is one of those films that often flies below the pop-culture radar, but for any ‘film buff’, it’s a must watch. I never fail to hear it mentioned in film class, either by my professor or by some astute film buff who boasts a full bookcase of the Criterion collection in the flesh. The Rules of the Game is widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces in the history of cinema, ranking among heavyweights such as Citizen Kane and Bicycle Thieves. Interestingly enough, the film was not recognized as such until about a decade after its initial release.